0809 Abcom

8/14/2019 0809 Abcom

1/5

TEST REPORT

0.59

36 TELE-satellite & Broadband 08-09/2008 www.TELE-satellite.com

HDTV via DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C

or DVB-T

HDTV Satellite Receiver

ABCom IPBOX 9000 HD Plus

ABCom offers their latest

box in silver or black, which will

please customers who prefer

electronic gadgets to fit in

smoothly with the rest of their

existing equipment. So if your

flat screen TV and home theatre

receiver is black, simply go for

the black IPBOX as well.

The receivers front panel

comes with the standard

standby button, an easy to read

alphanumeric VFD display and

stylishly hidden behind a flap

eight buttons to control the

box whenever the remote is not

at hand or out of battery.

The same flap also hides two

CI slots for all standard Condi-

tional Access modules such as

Irdeto, Seca, Viaccess, Nagravi-

sion, Conax or Cryptoworks.

The level of workmanship is

high and the box is pleasing to

the eye as well.

Turning around the IPBOX

9000 HD Plus reveals a per-

fectly equipped back panel.

What strikes right away is the

fact that the two tuners are

not permanently integrated but

rather only plugged in as mod-

ules. So if you would like to not

only receive DVB-S and DVB-S2

signals, but rather also DVB-T

or DVB-C, all you have to do is

open the receiver and exchange

one tuner (or both) for a differ-

ent one.

By the way, the only differ-

ence between the IPBOX 9000

HD and the IPBOX 9000 HD Plus

is that the Plus model comes

with two DVB-S2 tuners as

standard.

The great thing is you dont

have to be a scientist to be able

to exchange tuner modules and

even with no technical back-

ground at all it should be fea-

sible. Each tuner always comes

with a loop-through output so

that an additional receiver can

be connected or the input signal

can be forwarded from tuner 1

to tuner 2.

Right next to the slots for the

two tuners two scart eurocon-

nectors are available to con-

nect a CRT TV or a conventional

VCR.

If youre lucky enough to own

a beamer there are three RCA

sockets for providing a YUV

signal, three more RCA sockets

put out composite video and

stereo audio. Of course theres

Recent developments and product launches follow a clear

trend: PVRs are becoming the norm for HDTV reception as well

and while the pioneers of HDTV PVRs equipped their products with

a single tuner at the beginning, these days two integrated tuners

have become standard so that at least two simultaneous recordings

are now possible. Most manufacturers have such offerings in their

range and ABCom is no exception. However, their new IPBOX 9000

HD Plus has a few astonishing extra goodies in store as well, as you

will see shortly.

8/14/2019 0809 Abcom

2/5

08-09/2008

37www.TELE-satellite.com 08-09/2008 TELE-satellite & Broadband

ABCOM IPBOX 9000 HD PLUSA huge range of connection options

make this box a true all-rounder yet itremains easy to use as a family receiver.

also an optical output for digital

audio and HDMI for lossless dig-

ital video and audio transmis-

sion to an LCD or plasma TV.

In addition, youll find an S-

video connector, a telephone

jack, a USB 2.0 host interface

and USB 1.0 client interface, a

10/100 Mbit Ethernet port as

well as an RS-232 serial inter-

face. Theres even a mechanical

power switch to disconnect the

receiver from the mains.

The remote control that

comes with the package sits

nicely in your hand, boasts

clearly labelled buttons and

given the enormous range of

features offered by this box is

not filled to the brim with keys

and buttons.

If we really have to identify

a downside its the rather small

size of the RC buttons, so youd

better factor in some extra

time and training until you get

really used to working with the

remote.

Initial setupWhen turned on for the first

time an installation wizard pops

up on screen and asks for the

preferred on-screen, audio and

subtitle language(s). As it turns

out the IPBOX 9000 HD Plus is a

genuine globetrotter, with avail-

able languages including English,

Russian, French, Dutch, Italian,

German, Danish, Slovak, Czech,

Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish,

Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish,

Greek, Turkish, Korean, Croat,

Bosnian and Serbian.

Next, the receiver wants to

know the local time difference

to GMT and whether the clock

should be synced via satellite or

set manually by the user.

The third segment of the

installation wizard takes care

of configuring the reception

system that is used with the

receiver. By default the IPBOX

9000 HD Plus comes with a list

of 161 currently active satellites

which apart from all relevant

European positions includes

Asian and American birds as

well. By and large the transpon-

der lists seem to be up to date,

even though we detected some

weak spot for a few satellites,

such as NILESAT 7 West, for

example.

What really thrilled us were

the countless detailed options

for satellite configuration. First

and foremost all DiSEqC pro-

tocols (1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3/

USALS) are implemented in

an exemplary way and various

other settings make sure the

IPBOX 9000 HD Plus will fit per-

fectly into any existing recep-

tion equipment, no matter how

out of the ordinary. The LOF can

of course also be set manually

so that all varieties of LNBs are

supported. Control signals such

as 22 kHz can be manually acti-

vated or you can let the receiver

arrange all settings automati-

cally.

This brilliant overall impres-

sion is further enhanced by

the intelligent way in which

signals are distributed to both

tuners. Either both tuners are

provided with signals or one of

them becomes master while the

second becomes slave and is

hooked to the first with a short

connecting cable so that it can

receive its signal from the first

tuner.

Finally, the installation wizard

prompts the user to initiate a

signal scan. You can choose

whether this should be done for

tuner 1 only or for both tuners,

and you can select whether all

set satellites should be scanned

or whether youd like to limit the

8/14/2019 0809 Abcom

3/5

TELE-satellite World www.TELE-satellite.com/...

Arabic www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/ara/abcom.pdfIndonesian Indonesia www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/bid/abcom.pdfBulgarian www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/bul/abcom.pdfCzech esky www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/ces/abcom.pdfGerman Deutsch www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/deu/abcom.pdfEnglish English www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/eng/abcom.pdfSpanish Espaol www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/esp/abcom.pdfFarsi www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/far/abcom.pdfFrench Franais www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/fra/abcom.pdfGreek www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/hel/abcom.pdfCroatian Hrvatski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/hrv/abcom.pdfItalian Italiano www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/ita/abcom.pdfHungarian Magyar www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/mag/abcom.pdfMandarin www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/man/abcom.pdfDutch Nederlands www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/ned/abcom.pdfPolish Polski www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/pol/abcom.pdfPortuguese Portugus www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/por/abcom.pdfRomanian Romnesc www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/rom/abcom.pdfRussian www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/rus/abcom.pdfSwedish Svenska www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/sve/abcom.pdfTurkish Trke www.TELE-satellite.com/TELE-satellite-0809/tur/abcom.pdf

Available online starting from25 July 2008

Download this report in other languages from the Internet:


search

to individual

positions. Convenient

features like network scan or

FTA only are available and in

case youre looking for signals

on a particular transponder only

the IPBOX 9000 HD Plus even

lets you even finish the instal-

lation wizard with a manual

search by defining a valid fre-

quency with correct polarisa-

tion and FEC values.

Either way, the installation

will not finish before one search

mode is selected and completed

and this is actually a good thing

because whats the point of sat-

ellite receiver with no channels

on its list? By the way, heres an

important message to all DXers

out there: Of course the IPBOX

9000 HD Plus allows manual

input of PID values instead of

performing a search, so its the

perfect gadget for feed hunting

as well.

Thanks to the automatic

signal scan the channel memory

fills up quickly. Its capacity

for 10,000 channels is impres-

sive and means that the IPBOX

9000 HD Plus can be the perfect

companion for rotary antennas

and will

easily accom-

modate all the channels

that become available.

Where theres so much light,

there has to be some shadow as

well, as we were not really happy

about the time it took to scan a

110-transponder satellite. More

than seven minutes definitely

is too long for a receiver that is

supposed to be state of the art.

Once the scan is completed

youre all set to actually use

the box for watching and lis-

tening. Before that, however,

its a good idea to flick through

the main menu and familiarise

yourself with all the features

that are available. One of them

is the extremely convenient

transponder editor that allows

adding new transponders to the

satellite list in a breeze. Alter-

natively, you can also edit or

delete existing entries.

As were talking about a DVB-

S2 receiver here both QPSK and

8PSK modulation is supported

with FEC values of 1/2, 2/3,

3/4 , 3/5, 4/5, 5/6, 6/7, 7/8,

8/9 and 9/10. The same menu

even includes DVB-T channels

for EU countries and Australia,

which can also be edited and

extended.

V i d e o

is provided to

the TV either as YUV, S-

video, CVBS or RGB in analog

format, or digitally via HDMI in

520p for PAL and NTSC or 720p

and 1080i at 50 or 60 Hz. Dolby

Digital 5.1 audio is available as

PCM or bit stream via a fibre-

optical cable or can be deacti-

vated in case it is not needed.

Once you open extended set-

tings menu you realise what the

receiver has on offer. Its Ether-

net port cries out for connecting

it to a DHCP compatible router

so that the receiver is automati-

cally assigned an IP address and

all required parameters such as

standard gateway address and

DNS server can be obtained

from the router. If you prefer

to set all parameters manually

youre welcome to do it that

way as well and the IPBOX 9000

HD Plus can even automati-

cally establish a DSL connection

using either the PPoE or PPP

protocols.

In case youre still waiting for

more out of the ordinary fea-

tures have a look at the hard disk

manager for the built-in 500 GB

hard disk. Rarely before have we

tested a PVR with so many indi-

vidual settings options, which

include extending the time shift

buffer to up to eight hours and

the option to save the complete

buffer content with a single click

on

the RECORD

button. You can also

automatically add a pre-defined

amount of time before and after

each timer recording or you can

activate a temperature-sensi-

tive fan control system. If you

encounter problems with your

hard disk it can be formatted

or checked the next time the

system starts up. Similar to a

PC the receiver then detects andrepairs any problems in the file

structure so that you can rest

assured that all your recordings

are stored reliably.

As the IPBOX 9000 HD Plus

is based on the Linux operating

system it can access all avail-

able and enabled drives and

directories in a local network

thanks to its Ethernet port.

To that end mount points for

NFS and CIFS are available.

This way individual directories

or complete hard disks (forexample with MP3 audio files or

image files) can be enabled and

accessed with the receiver.

We particularly liked the

option to make a software

update via the local network.

The IPBOX 9000 HD Plus is pre-

configured to access the cor-

rect FTP server and this way

can download current software

from the Internet at any time

and in next to no time. This cre-

ates an added value for users

as they can be certain to alwaysrun the latest software ver-

sion without having to rely on

8/14/2019 0809 Abcom

4/539www.TELE-satellite.com 08-09/2008 TELE-satellite & Broadband

updates via satellite which take

much longer and are less reli-

able. In our test the operating

system was updated flawlessly

and ABCom even lets the user

know beforehand which bugs

will be fixed and which new

features will be added with the

updated software.

Everyday useOnce the initial setup is com-

pleted you can leave the main

menu and let the receiver tune

into the first channel on the list.

Pressing the OK button prompts

the clearly laid out channel list

to appear on screen, with a small

preview window in the right sec-

tion of the screen showing the

currently selected channel.

Its quite common that more

than 2,000 channels are stored

in the channel list after a scan of

one or two popular satellites, so

the first job always is to neatly

rearrange that list so that it

becomes user friendly rather

than overwhelming. Luckily, the

IPBOX 9000 HD Plus offers a

range of sorting option accord-

ing to CAS/FTA, FTA/CAS,

alphabet, provider and satel-

lite. Channels you watch on a

regular basis can conveniently

be moved into one of the favou-

rites lists which are extremely

powerful and versatile, so that

each family member can create

their personal list and never has

to mess around with the end-

less overall list. Thanks to a

dedicated button on the remote

control the favourites lists can

be called up with the touch of

a button.

Every time you switch to a

new channel or press the INFO

button on the remote control

the receiver inserts a cleverly

arranged info bar with icons

indicating features like Dolby

Digital audio, teletext, subtitles,

broadcasting standard etc. In

addition the bar informs viewers

which tuner is in use and which

satellite transmits the currently

watched channel. Two coloured

meters let you know the level of

signal strength and quality.

To access the entire program

details provided by the indi-

vidual channels all you have

to do is press the EPG button.

With another touch of the same

button you can call up extended

information about the selected

event and with the RECORD

button you can set a timer entry

for recording that event.

Video and audio are of very

good quality in everyday use

and zapping between channels

is reasonably fast.

Even when

switching from standard defini-

tion to high definition channels

your patience is not put to test.

Time shift is a feature you will

never again want to do without

as it allows freezing an event at

any given time and then con-

tinuing from that very moment,

in case the telephone rings or

any disturbance happens while

youre watching TV.

In our test recording and

playing back SD and HD con-

tents took place flawlessly,

and we also liked that playback

always continued from where it

was last stopped. The overall

remarkable ease of use of this

receiver is complemented by

useful add-ons such as picture-

in-picture, integrated teletext

decoder and automatic detec-

tion of sub-channels. Thanks to

two built-in tuners it is possible

to simultaneously record two

events without interference or

interruption, no matter whether

SDTV or HDTV.

One of the few negative

aspects we noted is that it

sometimes seems to take

forever until the box reacts

to commands sent by the

remote control, and that

in some cases we had to

reboot the receiver by

turning the main power

switch off and on again

to bring it back to life.

However, we assume

that the manufac-

turer will address

these issues with

one of the next

software updates.

As mentioned

above the

IPBOX 9000

HD Plus comes

with a range

of multime-

dia features,

all of which are implemented

with user friendliness in mind.

Both the MP player and the pic-

ture viewer can be activated

with dedicated buttons on the

remote control, so that a single

touch of a button is all thats

needed. However, we were only

able to play back content that

was stored on the internal hard

disk as we did not manage to

gain access to a digital camera

connected to the USB host

interface, a USB memory stick

or an external hard disk.

No test is complete without

pushing the receiver to the

edge with weak signals, and

the IPBOX 9000 HD Plus had to

share the same destiny as any

other box we evaluate. To that

end we fed it with very weak

signals from ASTRA2D at 28.2

East, BADR 26 East and the

horizontal polarisation of NILE-

SAT 7 West. All results were

fairly average and we obtained

flawless reception with a C/N

value of approximately 5 dB and

higher.

We did notice, however, that

the signal quality bar of the

IPBOX 9000 HD Plus seems

to have a mind of its own as

it showed 96% signal quality

for a transponder that merely

reached the threshold level.

SCPC reception of the IPBOX

9000 HD Plus was OK with

glitch-free reception of signals

from TURKSAZ2A 42 East with

2 Ms/s.

The manufacturer is con-

stantly working on improving

the Linux-based software of this

receiver and as a next step they

are planning to implement IPTV.

A simple software update via

the local network will add that

feature to a box that is right up

there with the best even right

now.

8/14/2019 0809 Abcom

5/5

DATA

TECHNIC

DIAGRAMENERGY

Active Power

Apparent Power

Mode Apparent Active Factor

StandBy 46 W 26 W 0.56

Reception 54 W 32 W 0.59

with HDD 62 W 38 W 0.61


Manufacturer ABCom s.r.o., Gogolova 1, 95501 Topolcany, Slovakia

Tel +421-38-5362-611

Fax +421-38-5322-027

E-Mail [email protected]

Model IPBOX 9000 HD Plus

Function Digital HDTV PVR receiver for DVB-S,

DVB-S2, DVB-C and DVB-T reception

Channel memory 10000

Satellites 161

Symbol rate 2~45 Ms/sec. (2 Ms /sec and higher in our test)

SCPC yes

DiSEqC 1.0 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3

USALS yes

Scart 2

HDMI yes, 520p for PAL and NTSC via HDMI not suppor ted

A/V output 3 x RCA

YUV output 3x RCA

UHF output noS-Video output yes

0/12 Volt connection no

Dig. Audio connection yes

Ethernet port yes

USB 2.0 Host yes

USB Client yes

RS232 interface yes

EPG yes

C/Ku band compatible yes

Power supply 110-245 VAC, 50/60 Hz

Power consumption 50W max. (according to manufacturer)

Dimension 375x60x280mm

Expert Opinion

+The IPBOX 9000 HD Plus is a new-generation

HD PVR receiver that is convenient to use every

day. The manufacturer constantly improves the

operating software so that we can expect new fea-

tures for a box that already includes all you could

wish for.

-Signal scans should be faster. There were a number of system

crashes during our test.

At 09:16 the box boots, then operates normally with activated hard disk from

09:17. At 09:22 the hard disk is shut down, at 09:27 the receiver is set to

standby mode and at 09:34 the receiver is disconnected from the mains.

Thomas HaringTELE-satellite

Test CenterAustria

Channel list

EPG

Firmware update via Internet

LNB settings

Main menu

0809 Abcom

Documents

Transcript of 0809 Abcom